PHILOSOPHY 371F (FALL 1996): 20th CENTURY CONTINENTAL PHILOSOPHY
Mondays and Fridays 11-12:30 in Cupples II, rm. 202
AFTER UNIVERSALISM: END OR TRANSFORMATION?
Instructor: Joel Anderson Phone: 935-7147 Email: anderson@artsci.wustl.edu (checked daily)
Office: Busch Hall 103 Office hours: M 3:30-4:30, F 12:30-1:30, and by appointment.
TEXTS FOR THE COURSE:
Jean-François Lyotard, The Postmodern Condition (University of Minnesota Press, 1979)
David Hoy and Thomas McCarthy, Critical Theory (Blackwell, 1994)
(Both books are available at Mallinckrodt: aisle 5a, #35)
Course Packet (two volumes) from the Hi/Tec Copy Corner, at the corner of Big Bend and Millbrook. (Phone: 863-4111. Hours: M-Th: 8-8; F: 8-6; Sa 9-6; Su 12-6). It will cost about $43, including royalties for copyright permission.
Some additional readings will also be distributed in class during the semester, including worksheets for small groups discussions. If you are unable to pick them up in class, it is your responsibility to make sure that you get a copy. Copies will be available in the slot marked "371" in the Philosophy Dept. office (Busch 225), on your left as you walk in. If you are not in class to pick up graded assignments, they will be available in the same slot, usually in an envelope designated for that assigment.
EVALUATION
This course will emphasize reading difficult texts, and the assignments for are geared toward encouraging careful reading and facilitating good discussion. There are no exams and no final paper. Instead, you will be required to write three papers and prepare discussion essays for six small group discussions.
Three Papers (25% each) You will be required to write three four-page papers (about 1000-1200 words each). These papers should focus on a close reading of the texts and a careful analysis of the arguments contained in them. You may choose to rewrite one of the first two papers, in which case your grade for that assignment will be the average of the two grades.
Participation in small groups (15%) During six sessions this semester, the class will be divided into small groups for discussion. Each half of the group will be responsible for a different reading and will have answered a set of questions on that reading. The purpose of this is to facilitate collaborative learning. Your grade will be based on the best five small group "discussion essays" you write. If you come to class without a completed essay, you will receive a 0 for the individual portion of the assignment and will be placed in a separate group. Late discussion essays will not be accepted.
Class participation (10%): The course will involve a great deal of seminar-type discussions. This will only work if students come prepared for class (especially on the "discussion" days) and make regular and informed contributions to the discussion.
Ground Rules:
Word counts are strictly enforced. Grades on late assignments will be one full letter grade (10%) if turned in after the beginning of the class period on which they are due, and one further grade for each further 24-hour period it is late. Excuses should be documented (e.g., a doctor's note). You are expected to follow the University policy on academic integrity, printed in the Course Listings. If you do not do your own work for this course (if you copy a paper from a someone, piece something together from published work, or turn in something you wrote for another class) you may fail the course and be subject to University disciplinary action. Aside from being unethical, plagiarism can jeopardize your future far more than a low grade. If, in the course of the semester, you find yourself with your back to the wall and are tempted to take a shortcut of this sort, come and talk to me. We may be able to work something out.
Grading Scale: (These are cut-off points, i.e., you must be at or above that score.)
A+ = 97.5 A = 92.5 A- = 89.5 B+ = 86.5 B = 82.5 B- = 79.5
C+ = 76.5 C = 72.5 C- = 69.5 D+ = 66.5 D = 62.5 D- = 59.5
Pass/Fail students must earn at least 69.5 points to pass.
SCHEDULE OF MEETINGS AND ASSIGNMENTS
Except for "handouts" and the two books (Lyotard and Hoy/McCarthy) all readings are in the course packets.
F 8/30 Introductory meeting: Overview, logistics, requirements.
Lecture on Jean-François Lyotard (born 1924)
Monday, September 2 LABOR DAY
F 9/6 Discussion of Lyotard's The Postmodern Condition, xxiii-xxv, 3-67.
Optional: Jameson's Forward to The Postmodern Condition
M 9/9 Discussion of Franco-German relations
Lyotard, The Postmodern Condition, 71-82;
Habermas, "Philosophy as Stand-In and Interpreter"
Honneth, "The Affect against the Universal" (handout)
F 9/13 Lecture on Michel Foucault (1926-1984)
Discussion of Nietzsche's "On Truth and Lies in a Nonmoral Sense"
M 9/16 Small Group Discussion of Foucault's "archeaology" of "regimes of truth"
Whole class: Foucault, from The Order of Things & "The Dangerous Individual"
Group A: The Archeaology of Knowledge, intro & ch. 3
Group B: "The Discourse on Language"
F 9/20 Small Group Discussion of Foucault's "genealogy" of "power/knowledge":
Whole Class: Foucault, "Two Lectures"
Group A: "Truth and Power," pp. 109-125 only
Group B: "Eye of Power"
M 9/23 Discussion of Habermas's critique of Foucault
Foucault, "Truth and Power," pp. 125-133.
Habermas, "Some Question Concerning the Theory of Power: Foucault Again"
Hoy, Critical Theory, ch. 5
F 9/27 Lecture on Heidegger (1889-1975)
PAPER #1 DUE
M 9/30 Discussion of Heidegger's "On the Essence of Truth"
F 10/4 Lecture on Hans-Georg Gadamer (born 1900)
Reading: Translators' introduction & Gadamer's Preface to Truth and Method
M 10/7 Discussion of Gadamer's hermeneutics
Gadamer, from Truth and Method, pp. 265-284; 291-307
Optional: the Gadamer-Derrida "encounter"
Gadamer, "Text and Interpretation"; Derrida, "Good Will to Power"; and Gadamer, "Reply to Derrida"
F 10/11 Lecture on Jürgen Habermas (born 1929)
Reading: McCarthy, Critical Theory, ch. 2
M 10/14 Discussion of Habermas's "Toward a Critique of the Theory of Meaning"
Optional: Austin, How to Do Things with Words, pp. 1-24
Optional: Searle, Speech Acts, pp. 3-25.
Friday, October 18 FALL BREAK FALL BREAK FALL BREAK
M 10/21 Small Group Discussion: Agreement and Pluralism
Group A: McCarthy, Critical Theory, ch. 3
Group B: Hoy, Critical Theory, ch. 6
F 10/25 Discussion of Habermas's "Morality and Ethical Life"
M 10/28 Small Group Discussion: Foucault-Gadamer-Habermas
Group A: McCarthy, Critical Theory, ch. 7
Group B: Hoy, Critical Theory, ch. 8
F 11/1 Lecture on Derrida (born 1930)
Reading: Ferninand de Saussure, from Course in General Linguistics (handout)
PAPER #2 DUE
M 11/4 Discussion of Derrida's concept of "différance"
"Interview with Jacques Derrida"
Derrida, "Différance"
David Wood, "Beyond Deconstruction?" (P)
F 11/8 Lecture on Luce Irigaray (born 1930) and Lacanian psychoanalytic theory
Reading: de Beauvoir, from The Second Sex
Optional: "Interview with Luce Irigarary"
M 11/11 Small Group Discussion of Irigaray's theory of sexual difference
Whole Class: Irigaray, "The Power of Discourse and the Subordination of Women" and "Così Fan Tutti"
Group A: Irigaray, "Questions II"
Group B: "Women in the Beehive: A Seminar with Jacques Derrida"
F 11/15 Discussion of feminism and essentialism
Irigaray, preface to Thinking the Differences
Trinh Minh-ha, "Difference: 'A Special Third World Women Issue'"
Spivak, selection from "In a Word"
M 11/18 Lecture on Emmanuel Levinas (1906-1996) and French phenomenology
Readings: Sartre, from Being and Nothingness; Bauman, "The Elusive Universality"
F 11/22 Small Group Discussion of Levinas's metaphysics of responsibility to the Other
Whole Class: Levinas, "Ethics as First Philosophy"
Group A: "Metaphysics and Transcendence" (from Totality and Infinity)
Group B: "The Ethics of the Face" (from Totality and Infinity)
M 11/25 Discussion of Levinas's "Substitution"
Friday, November 29 THANKGIVING BREAK
M 12/2 Discussion of Derrida's "At this Very Moment in This Work Here I Am"
Optional: Levinas, "Wholly Otherwise"
Optional: Irigaray, "Questions to Emmanuel Levinas: On the Divinity of Love"
F 12/6 Discussion of Lyotard's "Le Différend"
Optional: Lyotard, "Obligation"
M 12/9 Closing (?) Discussion of difference, mutual understanding, and the responsibility to the Other
Derrida, "The Politics of Friendship"
McCarthy, "On the Margins of Politics: A Reply to Derrida"
Optional: Levinas, "The Rights of Man and the Rights of the Other"
PAPER #3 DUE
Note: Papers will be returned to the course box in Busch 225 by Monday, Dec. 23. They will still be available the following semester for pick-up. If you would like to have it sent to you, turn in a self-addressed, large, stamped envelope with your paper. If you would like to have your grade immediately, send an e-mail request to that effect around Dec. 23.